But they have to be just right.
When we first got married (back in the stone-age), I tried all of the recipes I could find for molasses cookies. Not one of them satisfied his (and my) deep longings for that perfect blend of crispy outside and chewy inside. The tantalizing marriage of molasses sweetness and ginger spiciness.
Until this recipe:
Paula was a woman my husband worked with back in the day. Look at that recipe card! Graphics like that haven't been around since the early '80s!
Anyway, one day at work my husband mentioned his craving for just the right molasses cookie, and Paula gave him her recipe.
The first time I made them, they passed inspection...even though they weren't quite right, they satisfied the cravings.
But then in the late '80s/early '90s, we stopped using vegetable oil and corn oil. When I switched to olive oil for my cooking, this recipe got shoved to the back of the file.
(Just a hint - don't use olive oil for this recipe! The flavor is...well...less than desirable.)
Then came the early 2000's and I started using coconut oil in my cooking. I'm sure you know about my love affair with coconut oil! I only use three fats when I cook - it's either going to be butter, olive oil, or coconut oil.
Anyway, my husband had one of those cravings last week, and I realized I hadn't tried this recipe with coconut oil.
It is a winner! And just in time for fall. :)
Jan's Best Molasses Cookies
ingredients:
3/4 cup coconut oil (warm it to above 76° so it's liquid before you measure)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.
In a large bowl, lightly beat the egg, then add oil, sugar and molasses and stir until mostly blended. Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
Form into balls - about the size of an English walnut - and roll in sugar. Put them on a cookie sheet. I line mine with parchment paper.
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| Ignore that "ball" on the lower right. I don't know what happened! |
Bake the cookies at 375° for 8-12 minutes. At my higher altitude, I need to bake them closer to 14 minutes.
The key thing is that you don't want to over bake them - you don't want them hard and crispy.
(Unless you like gingersnaps! I learned that if you forget to take them out of the oven soon enough, you have the perfect hard, crunchy gingersnap texture!)
But you don't want to under bake them, either!
Follow your gut instinct. Channel your inner Gibbs. :)
When they are baked just right, they are crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, and oh! so delicious!
Definitely husband approved!
In other news, look what the UPS man brought on Friday!
Opening a box of books with my name on the cover never gets old!
And then my cousin shared this picture on Facebook to celebrate Grandparents Day:
This is a picture of nears and dears, but I want you to look at the woman on the left. That is my great-grandmother, Bessie Ellen Schrock Sherck.
Yes, George Sherck courted one of the Schrock girls and won her.
She is the woman I dedicated Mattie's Pledge to:
Bessie didn't have an easy life, but who did in the decades surrounding the turn of the century...the last century? Born in 1883, she raised five daughters and moved several times as her husband traveled between Michigan and Indiana, planting churches wherever he was called. She was ill much of the time with bouts of malaria, measles, mumps, whooping cough - all contracted as an adult. When the flu epidemic of 1918 swept the nation, she was sick for weeks. At the same time she was quietly fighting rheumatoid arthritis. There was no treatment for the disease then - the victims slowly watched their joints become weaker, more swollen, and more painful with every year.
But I never heard her complain. I remember her beautiful roses planted in a hedge at the edge of her yard. I remember her huge garden. I remember her lovely white hair and bright brown eyes.
I remember her dedication to her church and her faith...the dedication she has passed on to her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great grandchildren, and great-great-great grandchildren.
I don't know what dreams Bessie put away when she dedicated her life to her Lord, but I know that her deepest heart's desire has been achieved as she has joined the "great cloud of witnesses."
As the character of Mattie Schrock was forming in my mind, I thought often of Bessie and her life. I am thankful for the example she set for me, and that I can pass on to my family.
Don't you think that is worth a book dedication?
Do you have someone in your life who has been an example of faith and service? Tell us about them!
Jan Drexler loves her family, her home, cooking and just about anything made by hand. But she loves her Lord most of all.
Stop by Jan's website to learn more about her books: www.JanDrexler.com
